"I lost a lot of my crew due to them taking off for home. Can't blame them really. With all the badness going down people want to get to their families," Travis said softly.
Katie shivered as she remembered Lydia.
Travis took hold of her arm gently and rubbed it lightly. "You okay?"
She knew her eyes were glistening. "Just..."
"Yeah, me, too. I'm divorced so...but my parents..."
"Jenni lost everyone but her stepson. I lost..." she faltered.
Travis' eyes were so warm, so compassionate. "You lost your husband."
Katie hesitated, but felt that something was fast developing between her and Travis. A bond…an understanding...something different. It was best to be honest.
"My wife."
Travis' gaze dropped for a moment, but his hand did not. He rubbed her arm tenderly, then said, "I'm sorry. She had to be real special to be with you."
His words unleashed something deep within her and she covered her mouth, tears springing from her eyes. She felt tears on her face. Their gaze met, strong, understanding and he put his other hand on her other arm.
"But she'd want you to survive," he added.
Jenni wrapped one arm around Katie's waist and leaned against her, trying to comfort and maybe also trying to edge in on what she saw developing before her eyes. She looked confused and Katie understood why. Things between men and women were black and white with Jenni. Travis and Katie just clicking on some subliminal level had to be throwing her.
Katie nodded and looked down at her feet to regain her composure. Finally, she looked up at him once more. "So you're the leader..."
Travis withdrew his hands slowly. "Nah. The Mayor is. I just advise him."
Katie slightly laughed and wiped a tear away. "Uh huh."
Travis leaned toward her and put one finger to his lips. "Shhhh..."
"That maid is at it again," a tall Hispanic man said from behind them. He pointed upwards and drew their attention to a window high above them.
"That's the old hotel. They were going to open it in a few days," Travis explained.
Katie noted that the first three floors had no windows that opened up onto the construction site. But further up, windows caught the rays of the setting sun lighting them up with a purple and pink glare. Near the top floor the outline of a woman continuously battered herself against the window.
"She busts out the window, she's coming straight down," the Hispanic man decided in a thick West Texas accent.
"Maybe she'll land on her damn head, Juan" Travis said.
Katie narrowed her eyes and looked back at Travis. "The window is cracked."
"She's been working on it for awhile. Since sometime last night. Bet she went to hide up there after being bit and... Well..." He shrugged.
Jenni stepped closer to Travis. "What if there are more up there?"
Katie glanced at the back of the building with the faded advertising for Coca Cola on the back of it. No windows at all on its back end. Just what looked like a back entrance and that was heavily barricaded.
"It'll be raining zombies," Juan said with a laugh.
Then it was raining one zombie. The maid finally broke the tempered glass and shoved her hand through. She worked and worked at it until she pushed herself all the way through and fell. It was a long, graceful sort of fall. Her blond hair streaming behind her. Her pink and blood colored dress hitching up over her head and shoulders. She landed feet first on the hard packed soil. Every bone in her legs shattered and she crumpled to the ground. Unable to get up, she began to systematically crawl toward the nearest person.
By now a group of people were standing and watching, mesmerized. Juan sighed and started to walk toward her with a shovel in one hand.
Katie cocked her shotgun.
"No. No guns. The sound will bring them here if they are out of the school," Travis said.
"Good point."
Katie tried to look away, but couldn't. Juan casually drove the shovel through the head of the zombified maid and the drama was over.
"We need to build a catapult and just toss them over," Juan muttered as he motioned to another man to help him dispose of the body.
Travis laughed. "We just may."
Katie turned and looked at him and slightly smiled. "So..."
"So?"
Jenni hovered near Katie's side, Jason right behind her. Jack looked at Katie curiously.
"Got anything to eat around here?"
"As a matter of fact, there was supposed to be a fund raiser for the local volunteer fire department. There is so much food up in the community dining hall on the second floor of city hall, you're gonna feel like you're in heaven."
Thank God," Jenni said with relief.
"So we're staying," Jason said.
Katie looked at him and then at Jenni. Jenni smiled at her, her gaze flicking to Travis then back to Katie.
"Yeah, we're staying."
"Good. Because we need you here. I feel it," Travis said and he put his arms around both Jenni and Jason. "Now, let's get you food, introduce you to the Mayor and hear your stories."
Katie didn't think Jenni could get any redder or anymore giddy. She followed the little group as they moved toward the city hall not even glancing back once to see Juan and another guy loading the dead zombie onto the arm of the excavator to dump her back among her own kind.
"Besides," Katie mused. "How the hell would we get out of here?"
2, Through a Door Softly
Jenni felt rather special walking with Travis' arm around her shoulders. His voice was like fine leather against her skin and she felt herself blushing. Behind her, Katie walked briskly holding her shotgun in one hand and her backpack in the other.
As they neared the back entrance of city hall, Travis said, "Hold a sec" and released his hold on Jenni and Jason. He turned and motioned to Juan.
The Hispanic man, his long, curly hair flowing under his baseball cap, quickly ran over. He was tall, deeply tanned and had the lean muscled build of someone who worked at hard physical labor. His dark hair had glints of red in it and his eyes were a dark green. Tucking his thumbs into his work belt, he looked at Travis expectantly. He looked weary and a little short-tempered.
"We have more zombies on the way. Get the harnesses ready," Travis said.
"Great. It's not like we don't have enough of them out there as it is." Juan said in his very thick West Texas accent. "Are you sure?"
"They followed the ladies here to Ashley Oaks," Travis assured him. "They're on their way."
"Well, shit." Juan took a deep breath. His keen eyes flicked to Katie. "Where'd you pick 'em up?"
"Emorton was overrun. It looked like the whole town was turned. They weren't too messed up so they were fast," Katie answered. "I'm Katie, by the way. This is Jenni and Jason."
"I'm Juan," he answered and shook his head. ""We lost a man keeping them off the perimeter before."
"We learned from our mistakes. We need to keep them thinned out or we'll get overrun," Travis said.
"What are you going to do?" Katie glanced toward the barriers then back at Travis.
"We're going to secure some men with safety lines and give them shovels and some homemade spears. When the zombies come up against the outer perimeter, we stand above them on the trucks and stab down through their skulls, jumble up their brains. We took out around a dozen that way before we lost a man the last time. But we didn't have the safety lines the first time out," Travis said, his voice tinged with sorrow.
Juan shook his head and looked up at the darkening sky. "Good thing we got the lights set up. And if the grid goes down, we're on backup power..." He shook his head again. "This is a fucked up situation."
"Just get some men ready and hooked up. First sign of trouble, we yank them back."
"It's like we're dangling bait in front of the zombies, Travis," Juan protested gruffly.
"They're gonna come anyway," Travis answered.
"Yeah. Yeah. Shit." J
uan sighed heavily. "Okay. I'm on it."
Jenni waited on the stairs with Jason. She felt anxious at the conversation and Jason looked unnerved. Katie looked the opposite. She seemed comforted by the words of the two men. Jenni slowly realized it was because Katie felt that at last there was a working plan of action.
Travis clapped Juan on the shoulder. "Keep me informed."
"You got it, Travis" Juan said in a resigned tone and walked off.
Travis turned and instead of resuming his comforting embrace of Jenni and Jason, he lightly touched Katie's arm. "I want to hear about what's up with you. How you ended up here."
"Sure, but let’s eat." Katie gave him a slight smile. "We're seriously hungry."
With a nod of his head, Travis took hold of her arm and led her inside. Jenni hung back for a second to watch Juan order several men off the construction of the wall, then she followed Katie and Travis inside. She felt moody all at once and couldn't help it.
As he had promised, there was more than enough food up in the community-dining hall. Jenni and Jason almost ran to the table and started loading up plates. Katie took her time, talking animatedly to Travis, her shotgun still in her hand. Feeling even more disgruntled, Jenni filled her plate as she tried to adjust to their new situation and environment. She sat down at a long table, one of those folding ones that they always use at social functions in churches and other organizations, to eat a plate full of all sorts of "down home" cooking. Katie and Travis sat down across from her all the while talking about the construction of the wall. Next to her Jason was already eating a plate full of fried chicken. Of course, Jack was under the table, eating all sorts of good scraps.
But Jenni was confused.
Katie and Travis were talking swiftly, voices melding seamlessly. She had been convinced that they knew each other from before all of this. There had been a look of recognition in Travis' eyes when he had stood there holding Katie's hand. But they never said "Oh, hey it’s you!" or anything remotely like that. It was as if some sort of invisible box had sprung up around them locking everyone out.
And Jenni did not like that.
Well, yeah, she definitely liked Travis. He had such a strong presence and had such sweet eyes. And she had already caught him looking at her with that special look men have for women they find attractive. She didn't find Katie a threat in that regard though she was well aware that Katie had the kind of looks men gravitated to. Katie was gay. Pure and simple. That was not even an issue.
But Katie was her war buddy. Her new best friend. Her sister. They had spent a lot of time together. They had wept together. And Travis just appearing and just clicking with Katie-
-damn it all-
-it was making her a little nuts. She felt unbalanced by it and kept trying to get Katie to at least look at her. She felt needy and selfish and embarrassed by her feelings. It was foolish to feel this way when Katie had risked her life to help Jenni save Jason. And Jason was alive and well, sitting next to her, feeding bits of chicken skin to the dog because Katie had kept it together and got them out of the campgrounds.
Jenni stabbed at her congealing mashed potatoes and looked up again at Katie. For a wild, irrational moment, she thought that maybe she should make herself gay to keep Katie's affections, but realized that was just stupid. She wasn't gay and that wasn't what this was about. Katie made her feel safe. She needed to feel safe.
"...so that is the first and utmost priority at this time. The wall," Katie was saying.
"Exactly. Then we will start to lay out plans on how to secure the two buildings that border us so we can actually inhabit them as well."
"Walling off all the ground floor windows would be a start," Katie suggested.
"And we have the bricks for it. Since the service entrance is on the side and there is no entrance off the backside, which faces our area, we'll have to bust through a wall." Travis was drawing on a piece of paper, more doodling than anything, but was clearly enthralled by Katie's input.
"You'll have to clear the building," Katie said. "But you don't have guns."
"No, we were using our tools to off any zombies that attacked during the first phase of constructing the outer perimeter. A solid blow to the head and they go down."
"We could go get more guns," Jenni said softly.
They both looked at her and she blushed.
"You mean Ralph," Katie said.
"Well, yeah. I mean, I know you said that thing about the guns drawing the zombies, but one day, they are just gonna show up. And they're gonna make it real hard on us to do anything," Jenni said.
"Yeah, Jenni's right. Those zombies are just gonna come here anyway because we're here," Jason agreed. He chewed away on a chicken bone as Jack nudged his elbow.
Travis frowned a little and slowly nodded. "My family originally came from England when I was a boy. They were very anti-gun. We've done all right so far with our shovels. But..."
Katie laid her revolver on the table in front of him. "Discretion was in order for you to get this place secure as fast as you did, but soon this will be the answer. It's fast and more efficient if you got good aim."
"Your friend, Ralph, he has weapons? He just told us he was the Mayor of a small town."
"He is, but he also owns a pretty big hunting and camping store," Jenni said.
Travis rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"It wouldn't hurt to talk to him about this. Besides, I just realized we need to let him know we're okay." Katie looked at Jenni and winced.
"Ralph must be worried sick," Jenni answered. She felt a little better now that she was part of the conversation.
Katie turned to Travis. "I know you're in charge here--"
"The Mayor--"
"I know you're in charge here," Katie repeated "and I'd like to suggest that maybe you should arrange with Ralph to go pick up some weapons. If you really can clear out a lot of the zombies that are out there right now, maybe we can head over to Ralph's."
Travis looked at Katie for a long moment, his gaze steady and thoughtful. "Yeah, you got a good idea there. We got about twenty of those things out there now. More on the way. They may break out of the school soon."
"Then we can't waste time," Katie suggested.
Travis thought for a long moment. "Yeah. I think it’s time to go talk to the Mayor and get hold of your friend."
Katie had barely eaten, but she stood up as Travis did.
Jenni pushed her plate away quickly and followed suit. "I'll come with you."
"I'm going to keep eating," Jason said firmly and Jack seemed to agree with this decision as he licked his chops.
Jenni hurried around the table to follow Katie and Travis, desperate to be included.
Downstairs they entered a large room that was sectioned off into cubicles. The city secretary and her little boy were fixing up a bed for themselves behind her desk while the Mayor sat in a nearby chair listening to the emergency broadcasting channel.
"...as communication with Europe has ceased there is no word on how far the plague as spread. The CDC, operating in a slowly burning Atlanta, continue to issue guidelines for destroying the reanimates..."
The Mayor looked up to see them and turned off the radio. "They are beginning to repeat the broadcast. Not a good sign is it?"
Travis shook his head and sat in a folding chair across from the desk. "What about the CB?"
"Lots of truckers still out there trying to find safe places, but some are running out of gas. There are not as many out there as there were." The Mayor folded his hands on the desk and sighed. "How is the wall coming along?"
"We still think we'll have the area fully enclosed by morning if we keep working all night. Another batch of zombies are headed our way."
"The school?"
"Not yet. Other zombies following Katie and Jenni here. Maybe twenty. I have Juan organizing some men to kill as many as they can. We'll use safety lines this time."
The Mayor let out a long breath as he ran a hand over h
is balding head. "If the school..."
"Yeah. Which brings me to something. That man, Ralph, the Mayor who told us the girls were in route. He owns a hunting store. He has guns." Travis spoke softly with respect, but Jenni could tell he was subtly trying to steer the Mayor in the direction he wanted him to go.
The Mayor took in this information, then said, "I have an idea. We could send someone out to get some guns once we thin out the zombies around the wall."
Travis hesitated and said, "That sounds like a good idea. I can try to get ahold of Ralph tonight and maybe send out someone in the morning."
"See what you can figure out and let me know," the Mayor said softly.
Travis nodded. "I'll get right on it."
The Mayor slowly turned and once more checked on his computer. The CNN homepage was up on the screen. "Still the same page as yesterday. No updates."
Travis motioned to the women and they followed him into a side room. Curtis, the cop, sat beside a ramshackle set up of communication equipment. He looked pale beneath his tan and his thin blond hair was matted with sweat.
"Hey, Curtis!"
The cop looked up and said, "It's getting quieter out there."
Travis nodded, walked over and laid a hand on the cop's shoulder. He squeezed it lightly. "What about that man, Ralph?"
"He asked about the women. I told him they arrived safely."
"Good. Think you could get him back on the line?"
"Yeah. Give me a sec."
Jenni stood close to Katie, watching, taking it all in. It felt good to be here. Safer somehow. But she still felt thrown off balance. Katie looked at her, smiled, and tenderly swept some loose locks of Jenni's black hair back from her face.
As The World Dies: The First Days-A Zombie Trilogy Page 12
